The Lanx
The universe, unlike the how you Mortal's view it, is not made of a single, solid field in which all things exist in accordance to and equally with all others. In truth, it's not all layed out on a single surface (i.e. Plane), but rather it has many different levels to it, known as Planes. It it rather like how white light is not actually as simple as it might seem at first thought. White light is made up of several different colors, same as various planes make up the Lanx (Lanx meaning: "Layers" in Latin, it is how the planes are reffered to collectively). Sometimes one Plane may be superimposed atop antoher, at other times, mupltple Planes may bleed through and overlap, appearing to the observer that they are one. The Mortal Plane is the base Plane, the majority of the other Planes are superimposed, or "Layered" over it. The Mortal Plane is like a one-way mirror, where to those of other planes can see both their own plane and the Mortal one, and Mortals just see a reflection of their own world. In more simple terms, each Plane is like a peice of tracing paper, each with a picture drawn upon them and stacked atop a dark surface, the surface being the Mortal Plane. In places where dark areas of the pictures overlap, one may see a portion of a picture below the top of the stack (Bleeding), while there are also "holes" in the paper that might line up, forming a Rift, where someone might "Fall through the holes" between one plane to another. It may also be explained with colored lenses. Say you are in a room with multi-colored drawings adorning the walls, overlaping and weaving in an out of each other. By dawning a pair of colored glasses, certain drawings or shapes made in the same color of the lenses you are using will become appearent to you, and by dawning a different set of glasses, you will see a different set of drawings and shapes. The drawings as a whole represents the Lanx, and each color represents a plane, and so by this analogy, I hope that this concept is made clear about how one belonging to a certain plane has the ability to see only what is on that plane. The Egyptians harbored a similar concept, to them it was known as the Duat. The Axiom of the Lanx allows thigns to be "hidden in plain sight," as it were, in the Mortal World. Vampires appear as humans, unless you have the correct "Filter" to reveal the layer hidden beneath the mortal plane. To Mortals, things such as the city of Crossroads don't even register in their minds, for their minds are set to filter such 'nonsense' out. This is also why certain creatures posses certain weaknesses. Werewolves have a weakness to silver because it holds properties not percieved by the Mortals, for it does not have any such effect on their plane. Vampires are creatures once living, now dead; wood is something that was once living, and is no more, thus existing on the Nocturnal Plane, and being a threat to Vampires. But there are some things so brilliant, so violently sharp that they slice straight through all the layers of the Lanx, appearing on every Plane without exception. These are beings, of the most powerfully sinister kind, known as The Lords of Darkness; existing from the dawning of Time, and continuing to its End.